Written by Peter McGough
29 January 2015

15pauldillet-collapse

Paul Dillet's Collapse at the 1994 Arnold Classic

 

The 26th staging of the Arnold Classic takes place this coming March 7th. Within that hallowed history one of the most memorable episodes of the Arnold Classic doesn’t concern a winner, but rather the onstage trauma of a competitor who didn’t finish the contest. For those who witnessed this occurrence it probably seems remarkable that it is now 21 years since it happened. We speak of the 1994 rendition of the Arnold Classic and the collapse onstage of one of the freakiest bodybuilders of all time, Paul Dillett.

 PAUL’S FLAT-OUT DISPLAY

In the hours preceding the 1994 Arnold Classic prejudging on March 5th, heavily favored Paul Dillett--in pursuit of being drier than the Sahara in July -- was experiencing severe bouts of cramping. It later transpired that he had overdone one of the diuretics of choice of that era, which would set in motion a time bomb that would implode later in the day.

The 270-pounder's outward confidence as he walked onstage for the prejudging at 11:55am belied the acute discomfort he was undergoing. At 12:29pm, during the last callout of the symmetry round (the other two protagonists being Vince Taylor and Kevin Levrone), Dillett, with his back to the judging panel, tried to hit an impromptu double biceps pose. He raised his left arm and then locked it above his head as the oblique muscles on his left side went into a horrendous spasm. Unable to flex or lower his arm, Dillett lurched from the stage and slumped onto his back on a table in the recesses of the theater. Very soon, the stricken athlete was surrounded by a well-meaning group, among them a noncompeting Flex Wheeler who advised instant fluid intake. Dillett assured everyone that he was all right. "I'm not delirious or anything, you know," he said. "It's just a muscle spasm."

 A full 25 minutes elapsed before Dillett walked onstage again to execute his individual compulsories. His reappearance was greeted by tremendous applause and all hoped the crisis point had passed. With some difficulty, he completed his front double-biceps, front-lat and side-chest poses. Then, as he went into a back double-biceps pose, the 4,000 attendees gasped in

horror as the distressing scene they had witnessed 25 minutes earlier was repeated. Dillett grimaced and half screamed, "Oh, God!" (more in despair than pain) as a backstage marshal rushed to his aid. He still had his back to the audience as the marshal positioned himself to face Canada's biggest export since John Candy went Hollywood. Without anyone calling “Timber!” Paul took this as his cue to slump forward into the arms of the marshal, who was about six or seven inches shorter than the man he now fought to support. Three more marshals poured onstage and each grabbed a mighty Dillett limb and lifted him up. Unfortunately, he was facing downward, marooned in an ugly tableau of head-to-toe cramps that rendered him rigidly immobile. In this ungainly mode, Dillett's 270-pound physique was awkwardly lugged offstage. As an exit, the scene sort of lacked the grace and poise of the Pope being carried around St. Peter's Square in a sedan chair.

 NOT A DRY THIGH IN THE HOUSE

Stretched out behind the stage curtain, Paul was attended to by paramedics, who, with great difficulty, found a vein (Dillett was so dehydrated, all his surface veins had collapsed) in which to insert an IV drip. Throughout the trauma, Paul was completely coherent, and at no time did he display false heroics by talking of going on with the contest. It was his decision to be taken to the local hospital, to which he was ferried to at 1:25pm (with the prejudging in progress). He was released after three hours, and later appeared at the night show to tell the

audience how disappointed he was that he couldn't finish the contest, and flexing his mighty biceps added that when, “I return next year I will look disgusting!” (Only in bodybuilding are such statements looked upon with anticipatory approval.)

 In my original report of the incident, I wrote: "It can be argued that whatever torment Paul Dillett had endured, he inflicted it upon himself. (As well as his physical discomfort, there is the fiscal pain of the potential $90,000 winner's check that could well have been his as before his collapse he was pushing eventual winner Kevin Levrone and runner-up Vince Taylor all in the way.) But during the last two years, there has been a succession of bodybuilding

casualties of varying degrees due to the demon of excessive water depletion. In the hunger for glory, competitors are willing to up the ante to any level in pursuit of first place. It seems the groundswell of pushing athletes to ever more arid levels is growing alarmingly.”

 The truth is that as the Arnold Classic throng watched Dillett’s gyrations just about everyone present was mindful that less than 18 months previously Momo Benaziza had died hours after the Dutch Grand Prix due to a heart attack brought on by severe dehydration of the type they saw on display in Columbus. And that in the past year Mike Matarazzo and Edgar Fletcher had visited death’s door in pursuit of ultimate dryness.

 GENETICS GET YOU SO FAR

Paul stormed into the sport in 1991 when blew into Gold’s Gym, Venice, from Canada where his physique made the venerable gym’s logo look anorexic. He had perhaps just about the best genetics ever (in terms of bone structure, proportions, and length of muscle insertions) therefore his potential was enormous. But like a lot of guys with good genetics the first phase of bodybuilding comes easier than for most because anything they do gives them an optimum muscular response. Thus when it comes to ratchet things up a notch it becomes difficult because they have not had the background of having to dig in and suffer in the manner that harder gainers have had to endure.

 I think Paul would agree that such a resume applies to him. In 1993/’94 he was shaping up as threat to Dorian Yates, and then a shoulder injury and an inability to advance seemed to stop him in his muscle development tracks. Despite that Arnold Classic debacle, 1994 proved to be his best year. Just a couple of weeks later he won the French and German Grand Prixs (his only other pro win was the 1999 Night of Champions) and a few months later he attained his highest ever Olympia placing of fourth. He bowed out with tenth spot at the Montreal Grand Prix.

 

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